[David E. Brown]

Gents,

Here are my thoughts on this Me 262 A-2a aircraft.

The original camouflage was 74/75/76 with a later unit / field-applied wellen scheme of 71 or 83. The original scheme and lack of a werknummer on the fin above horizontal stabilizer on the port side (i.e. 110000, 111000, 112000, 113000, 170000, 500000 and 501000 series) indicates an aircraft from the 130000 series. Except for the 130000-series, and a few other very rare instances, only Me 262 A-1a/U3 conversions from the 500000-series had their werknummer on the lower fin beneath the stabilizer. The code “Black D” and the fact that this is an A-2a version (single set of Mk 108 kanones) in all probability indicate that this aircraft is from I./KG 51.

This was not an original Kommando Schenk aircraft since there is no evidence of a letter or a painted-out letter on the forward fuselage as seen in photos of its aircraft, e.g. “9K+sw.F. It may well be that this is one of the first Me 262s assigned to KG 51 post-Kommando Schenk (late September 1944), which had its nine remaining aircraft incorporated into the unit’s 3. Staffel. If so, its likely code was “9K+sw.DL, WNr.130???. If it was a later addition, then its black letter would point to 2. Staffel, hence “9K+DK”, WNr.130???.

As there is no evidence of the small 20mm unit and staffel code on the fuselage, and lack of a painted-out forward fuselage letter (Kdo. Schenk), I suspect that it is indeed one of the original KG 51 aircraft and so would be "9K+sw.DL", Wnr.130??? of 3./KG 51.

Cheers,

David